In this document, the phrase “unmanned system” is used to refer to any electrical, mechanical, or biomechanical system that operates at any time without direct human control or with occasional human control, such systems typically being robotic aerial, land, underwater, or space vehicles. In today's colloquial terms, unmanned systems, particularly of the aerial variety, or unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), are referred to as “drones”.
Unmanned systems are known to be versatile. The ability of unmanned systems to traverse three-dimensional space makes them ideal for a myriad of applications. While unmanned systems have been historically used for military applications, there has been a recent surge of their usage in civilian applications ranging from sports photography and cinematography, to commercial air surveillance, to domestic policing. However, practical commercial or industrial applications require solutions that involve complex processes, and often times these applications are time-intensive. One single unmanned system, with its very limited amount of operation time due to several limitations, including energy usage, cannot be practically used for commercial and industrial tasks.
For unmanned systems to be practically deployed and used for actual commercial and industrial purposes, several obstacles must be overcome, including two that follow. First, the unmanned systems have to be deployed in a fleet manner, and the fleet must be intelligently managed in order to achieve practical solutions on a commercial or industrial scale. Second, each unmanned system in such a fleet has to be kept operational and self-sustaining (partially or completely) for the majority of its operational cycle. Some applications, such as high risk security surveillance, demand that these unmanned systems be operational in the air (or other medium) twenty-four-seven.
A single integrated logistical system solution is necessary to overcome these two obstacles. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for ensuring the operation and integrity of a three-dimensional integrated logistical system that includes a plurality of drones. Each of the plurality of drones is controlled remotely through a fleet management software operated from a control station. The control station is used to direct the plurality of drones to a destination location or to any of a plurality of service stations. Each of the plurality of service stations is equipped with a robotic service unit that allows for service repairs to the plurality of drones and the equipping of payloads to the plurality of drones to be conducted autonomously. Each of the plurality of drones is directed and monitored using a plurality of environmental sensors and a plurality of internal sensors.